WASHINGTON — Mississippi Tea Party dreams were extirpated last week when State Senator Chris McDaniel lost his Republican primary bid to unseat Senator Thad Cochran. Yet if some of Mr. McDaniel’s most outspoken contemporaries are any guide, he may actually have greater political influence as a loser.

Mr. McDaniel made clear this week that he was not giving up the fight, dashing off fund-raising emails declaring Mississippi’s Republican Senate runoff “a sham, plain and simple,” and offering rewards to individuals who “provide evidence leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in voter fraud.”

He was playing to type. Many of the Tea Party movement’s most resonant — or at least loudest — voices these days were themselves Election Day losers who have packed up their ideas about government and elections along with their campaign signs and headed to outside groups, radio programs or their own living rooms in an effort to influence campaigns, often making heaps of trouble for their own party.

The mother of this strategy is Sarah Palin, the failed vice-presidential candidate who jettisoned her job as governor of Alaska in favor of a personal bully pulpit and a political action committee to support conservatives candidates, who largely covet her nod.

Chris Chocola, a former congressman from Indiana who is the president of the conservative Club for Growth, has also mastered the strategy of disrupting legislation he finds unfavorable with a rating system for members of Congress that is used to bludgeon them during re-election campaigns. Mr. Chocola left the House after his own failed re-election effort in 2006.

The two-time loser Jim Ryun, once a congressman from Kansas, finds himself far more influential as the head of the Madison Project, which has its own “performance index.”

Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, a former attorney general of Virginia who lost a race for governor last year, is now the president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, a PAC that bankrolls very conservative candidates.

That PAC was started by former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, whose influence has always been stronger outside the Senate than within it. He quit his day job as senator in an attempt to build a campaign operation from the Heritage Foundation, the august conservative think tank that he has made far more political since he took its helm last year.

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A sampling of the Tea Party’s most outspoken also-rans who have gone on to great influence after their losses. Will Chris McDaniel do the same?Published OnJuly 3, 2014CreditImage by William Widmer for The New York Times

Even Allen West, who represented a congressional district in Florida for a mere one term — as a freshman, he had almost no independent influence — more effectively agitates from his perch at Fox News and with his Allen West Guardian Fund. Through the end of March, his PAC had brought in $3.8 million this cycle, despite his not running for anything. He has given only $5,000 to federal candidates.

Yakking from the outside and doling out money is, of course, easier than producing legislation with a group of disparate political minds, and for some, it is also more lucrative — Mr. DeMint is estimated to make around $1 million a year — and rewarding.

“For me, being with the Club is a more satisfying experience in the sense that there is an opportunity to be more effective than a single member of the House,” Mr. Chocola said. “Politics in many ways is looking like you’re doing something rather than actually doing something, and in the Club you are really doing something. For me personally, it’s a better fit.”

But the strange dichotomy of being a failed-politician-turned-star-activist is not lost on those who labor in the system. “Sometimes you just have to shake your head,” said Brad Dayspring, a top strategist for the National Republican Senatorial Committee who spent much of the last few months trying to block Mr. McDaniel’s ascent. “But, hey, if Screech from ‘Saved by the Bell’ can still cash in on his five minutes of fame, anyone can.”

But money, words and report cards have had an impact on races, members of Congress concede, and Mr. Chocola has been a thorn in the side of the House Republican leadership.

Ms. Palin has given a total of hundreds of thousands of dollars to scores of candidates over the last few cycles. Most recently, her endorsement helped push Joni Ernst past her rivals in a crowded Iowa Senate primary.

“Sarah Palin’s roaring support will help me to victory, and as a result, make ’em squeal in Washington,” Ms. Ernst said at the time.

Ben Sasse was also helped by Ms. Palin in his victory over primary competitors in a Senate race in Nebraska.

The other side sees it as well, and by highlighting the role of outsiders in these races, it can add wattage to their star power. The Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters and the Environmental Defense Action Fund created an ad featuring a clip of Ms. Palin endorsing Ms. Ernst to cast her as being against the environment.

So take note, Mr. McDaniel. Your days in the spotlight may just be beginning.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Tea Party Favorites Find That Losing Only Widens Their Reach. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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